Olga B. Frolova
St. Petersburg
It is known that owing to the medieval Arabic works by Ibn Hordadbeh, Ibn al-Faqih, Ibn Ruste, al-Mas'udi, Jaqut and others that the ethnic name "Burdjan"is connected first of all with Bulgaria on the Danube river and this name is also believed to be attributed to Bulgaria on the Volga river. [1] Sometimes it is used in connected with Burgundians. [2] L. Shishmanov, and after him T. Lewicki, called Burdjan a lapsus calami, viz. a mistake, in the writings by Arabic authors. [3] The Russian scientist Boris N. Zakhoder generalized the information from various Arabic sources and pointed out that Bulgaria (Burdjan) was in the north, but on the map its territory extended over a broad zone. When he took the data about Burdjan from the Cosmographie of Zakarija al-Qazwini, he was puzzled because the land was situated between north and west. [4] Here is the text by Zakarija al-Qazwini: [5]
Burdjan is a wide land in the north. The day there continues four hours, but the night continues thirty hours, and vice versa. Its inhabitants believe in the faith of magicians and pagans. They are at war against Slavs and they are rather like Franks. They are also skilled in handicrafts and navigation.When comparing al-Qazwini's data with the interpretation by B. Zakhoder, it is necessary to note that al-Qazwini makes a clear distinction between the two names Burdjan and Bulgar. He wrote special articles about Bulgarian people who lived by the Black Sea and about the Great Bulgaria on the Volga river, but the "Burdjan"article is a separate one. Zakarija al-Qazwini understood very well that Bulgar and Burdjan were two absolutely different places.
It may be supposed that in the Cosmographie by al-Qazwini the Burdjan,
the land, is Scandinavia and the Burdjan people are Normans, viz.
Northmen. The proof of such a supposition is founded on peculiarities of Arabic
palaeography. It is known that any interpreter of European names in Arabic
works must take into consideration not only its similarity to names in other
languages but also its Arabic spelling. [6] In Arabic, the word burdjan
in believed to have several readings, "turdjan", "burdjal", [7]
maybe also "lurman"(Latinien - Lormanes). [8] If this word was written
carelessly and without diacritic dots, it could read "nurman"or
"norman"i.e. "Norman". In medieval Arabic geographical works, the name
of Normans had different forms: "al-ludana", "al-ludh`ana",
"al-urdmani", "al-kudkana", [9] "al-mud'ana". [10] Such
variants are the result of careless writing or of peculiarities in Arabic
palaeography: a careless Arabic spelling of the word is 
where the
first letter is "b"or "l"or "n"or "t"or "k", the second letter in "r"or "z"or
"d"or "dh"the third letter is "gj"or "m"and the last letter is "n"or "l"or
"na".
The analysis of the article's contents confirms the truth of that above-mentioned supposition. Not only Zakarija al-Qazwini calls Normans magicians and speaks about their skilfulness in navigation, but this is also done by the Spanish-Arabic historian Ibn al-'Izary. [11]
The sources of al-Qazwini's article "Burdjan" are unknown. Maria Kowalska in her special work "The sources of al-Qazwini's Athar al-bilad"does not touch upon this problem. [12] It is possible to state only the fact of the essential difference of the al-Qazwini's information and the material of other Arabic geographical works.
Thus, in medieval geographical Arabic works the word "Burdjan"means Bulgaria, Burgundians and Normans. Only contents of the authors' works help to understand the real meaning of this name.
2. Minorsky, V., A history of Sharvan and Darband in the 10th-11th centuries. Cambridge 1958 (in Russian translation. Moscow 1963, p. 197). [*]
3. Lewicki, T., Op.cit., I, p. 24.[*]
4. Zakhoder, B.N., Kaspiskij svod svednij o Vostochnoj Evrope, II, Moscow 1967, p. 35-36 (in Russian).[*]
5. Zakarija b. M. b. Mahmud al-Qazwini, Athar al-bilad, Beyrouth 1960, p. 612 (in Arabic).[*]
6. Minorsky, V., Kuda ezdili drevnie rusi? Vostochnie istochniki po istorii jugo-vostochnoi i zentralnoi Evropi, Moscow 1964, p. 24 (in Russian).[*]
7. Lewicki, T., Op.cit., II, p. 56.[*]
8. Minorsky, V., Kuda ezdili, p. 24.[*]
9. Ibid., p. 24-27.[*]
10. Al-Mas'udi, 'Ali b. al-Husayn b. 'Ali, Murudj az-Zahab wa-ma'adin al-djawhar, Misr 1958, I, p. 182 (in Arabic).[*]
11. Minorsky, V., Kuda ezdili, p. 24.[*]
12. Kowalska M., "The sources of al-Qazwini's Athar al-bilad", Folia orientalis 1967, viii, p. 41-88.[*]
© The author and Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies. Archived 21.3.96